Danger’s SideKick finally gets to the end of the line May 31st

The SideKick by Danger is surely one of the most iconic mobile devices ever known. This simple slider device arguably changed parts of mobile world as we know it. It bridged the gap between the two way pager and cell phone. Of course there were ‘smarter’ phones on the market when the Sidekick came around but none of these smart phones were appealing to the younger generations, let alone affordable. In some ways the Sidekick was the precursor to the influx of smart phones everywhere. Young to old, a web enabled smart phone can be found everywhere. Thank you Sidekick for helping open this door and goodbye for now!

In a press release earlier this week T-Mobile announced the death of the Danger Services on behalf of Microsoft. The plug will be pulled on this service on May 31st 2011. Danger is a subsidiary of Microsoft and it seems that the company feels it’s time to finally pull the plug on Sidekick support. T-Mo has stated that they will be initiating ‘offers’ to current Sidekick owners to transition them off of their SideKicks an onto a different model device. An “enhanced Web tool” as the carrier calls it is available on their website that will allow existing Sidekicks users to export the data on their Sidekicks for easy transfer onto a new phone. The data you will be able to save include contacts, photos, calendar, notes, to-do lists and bookmarks from the Sidekicks browser. But it does not stop there. The carrier will be offering Sidekick users half off select Samsung devices now through May 31st, alternatively you can choose to cancel your existing contract and avoid paying early termination fees. A peculiar ‘catch’ in these two options is you would have to sign a new two year contract with the company if you choose to pick up one of the select ‘half-off’ Samsung devices.

The carrier has been issuing letters of the changes to existing customers letting them know the deal as well as mentioning the rebirth of the timeless device under the supervision of Android. Yes the SideKick 4G will be on the way and surely launch before the May 31st deadline. This new Sidekick will be an Android device that will also be 4G compatible and its services will not be killed off anytime soon.

Are you a SideKick owner? Let us know how you feel about being forced to leave your Sidekick? Does the SideKick 4G excite you? Sound off in the comments and let us know.

i don’t like it at all i want my sidekick 3g!!!!!!! i don’t want a new contract or a wack samsung phone!!!!!!! and the new sidekick will be wack android slider not a sidekick!!! its sad t mobile is doing us this way

I’m a current sidekick user. I have mixed feelings about this. I’m excited to upgrade to the smartphone world but at the same time, I don’t like that T-mobile is only offering select Samsung phones for discount and why are they being so secretive about the release of the sidekick 4g? We have until April 5th to take advantage of the 50% discount. Are they waiting until that offer is OVER to introduce the new sidekick 4g so we cannot use the discount on it? It doesn’t make sense to me. I want to see the new sidekick before I decide on a new phone.

I was thinking about this as i wrote it. If they dont want to give you the discount on the Sidekick 4G, it may be better to use the waived termination fees to cancel your contract and pick up a new SK4G at the subsidized price….

I’m a sk user and I personally don’t like this idea at all; it’s really aggitating me. Also; who uses samsung? That’s probably why your offering it; just saying. I love my kick and held on to it when no one else did .

Just hate the fact the currently sidekick users pay 20 bucks for data service. Now we are being forced to pay 30 for web and another fee for text. Either way our bill is going up and Tmo does not care.